The spectral color resolution of an image is very important in color image analysis. Two factors influencing the spectral color resolution of an image are illumination intensity and lens aperture for a selected vision system. An optimal combination of illumination intensity and lens aperture for color image analysis was determined in the study. The method was based on a model of dynamic range defined as the absolute difference between digital values of selected foreground and background color in the image. The role of illumination intensity in machine vision was also described and a computer program for simulating the optimal combination of two factors was implemented for verifying the related algorithm. It was possible to estimate the non-saturating range of the illumination intensity (input voltage in the study) and the lens aperture by using a model of dynamic range. The method provided an optimal combination of the illumination intensity and the lens aperture, maximizing the color resolution between colors of interest in color analysis, and the estimated color resolution at the combination for a given vision system configuration.